Parks Associates: Majority of U.S. broadband households willing to pay more than $20 per month for comprehensive smart home system

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Mar 14, 2017) - Parks Associates will host the upcoming research workshop "Crossing the Chasm - Understanding Growth in the Smart Home" on Tuesday, March 21, at the Westin San Francisco Airport in California. The full-day workshop, sponsored by Ayla Networks, will help smart home players develop strategies to expand IoT awareness and adoption to the mass market. Industry participants include executives from August, Ayla Networks, Ericsson, Greenwave Systems, Honeywell, Logitech, NETGEAR, Salus, and Schneider Electric.

New Parks Associates consumer research indicates 50% of U.S. broadband households consider $20 or more per month for a comprehensive smart home service to be a good value. More than 26 million U.S. households own at least one smart home device, which represents a 35% increase from the beginning of 2016.

"The key challenge in today's smart home market is to move adoption beyond the early market and achieve mass adoption," said Brad Russell, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "We have seen recent improvements, with the adoption rate of smart home products increasing from 19% of U.S. broadband households at the end of 2015 to 26%. However, many obstacles and barriers still remain, including the need for apps that control all devices and innovations to extend smart capabilities to unconnected devices and create fully connected homes."

The event features findings from Parks Associates research products including:

• 360 View: Residential Security and Smart Home
• 360 View: Energy Management, Smart Home, and Utility Programs
• 360 View Update: Connected Home Devices Deep Dive
• Industry Report: Consumer Choice: Standalone or Bundled Smart Home Devices
• Industry Report: Transforming the Smart Home User Experience
• Industry Report: Smart Home: A Roadmap for Strategic Planning
• Industry Report: Smart Lighting Landscape for the Connected Home

The Parks Associates research team and industry participants will discuss current smart home trends, new business growth strategies, privacy and security concerns, and barriers to adoption. Participating speakers include the following:

• Mike Buckingham, Director, August PRO, August
• Paul Campbell, VP & Head, Silicon Valley Innovation Center, Schneider Electric
• Naveen Chhangani, Senior Director of Product Management, Arlo Smart Home, NETGEAR
• Scott Harkins, VP IoT Partner Programs, Honeywell Connected Home & Buildings, Honeywell
• Scott Hublou, VP, Global Connected Services, Salus
• Jim Hunter, Chief Scientist and Technology Evangelist, Greenwave Systems
• Rod McLane, Sr. Director Product Marketing, Ayla Networks
• Neil Raggio, Senior Director, Home Control Product and Business, Logitech
• Erik Ramberg, Director of Product Management, Business Unit Media, Ericsson

"Almost half of consumers rank privacy as their greatest concern about connecting devices to the Internet, and 40% have experienced a privacy or security problem with a connected device in the past year," Russell said. "This market trend is a significant barrier to IoT development, as data is key in expanding these solutions, and if consumer concerns prevent them from sharing data, many value propositions associated with the IoT will falter. At the workshop, we will examine strategies to incorporate more advanced security applications and the best ways to communicate these efforts to consumers."

Parks Associates will also present new IoT consumer data at the 21st-annual CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference, May 23-25, in San Francisco. The conference, which features keynotes from Comcast, Cox Communications, Intel, and Vivint Smart Home, will address topics on connected entertainment and smart home innovations, consumer adoption, marketing, and data/privacy protection.

To register for "Crossing the Chasm - Understanding Growth in the Smart Home," go to www.parksassociates.com/webcasts/chasm-workshop2017. To schedule a meeting with an analyst or request specific research data, contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com or 720-987-6614.

About Parks Associates
Parks Associates is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates creates research capital for companies ranging from Fortune 500 to small start-ups through market reports, primary studies, consumer research, custom research, workshops, executive conferences, and annual service subscriptions.

The company's expertise includes digital media and platforms, entertainment and gaming, home networks, Internet and television services, digital health, mobile applications and services, support services, consumer apps, advanced advertising, consumer electronics, energy management, and home control systems and security.

Each year, Parks Associates hosts industry webcasts, the CONNECTIONS™ Conference Series, Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, and Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. http://www.parksassociates.com